Meta

Month: March 2011

Another recent launch I was very pleased to see was the site for the Children’s Home Society of Missouri (CHSMO).

CHSMO is a treasure on the Missouri non-profit scene. Founded in 1891, the Society has been focused on providing children with safe, loving and happy homes. Strong families, counseling, education and advocacy have also become hallmarks of CHSMO.

The site dovetails with an identity evolution being explored by Heidi Jost and leverages the brand’s central colors while building interest through simple use of type, graphics and bold, evocative and immersive imagery. Both this and the recently posted Trailnet site (see below this post) demonstrate the proverbial “Holy Grail” of web design for me — a mix of informative and organized information design, typographic hierarchy, supporting graphics and beautiful photography. For me, that’s a perfect mix and I think this site does a great job of illustrating the elegant power of those elements. Who says great usability, system fonts and information-oriented sites can’t be beautiful?

I was thrilled to see the recent launch of a project I provided the design and digital brand for.

Trailnet is a great Missouri organization that focuses on building healthy, vibrant communities through activity and community connections. I led and creative directed the team that established new brand standards and messaging for the organization and was pleased to be able to personally design all of the digital extensions of that brand, breathing life to a great platform for the print world created by Rob Hutti, a team member.

The result is clean and evocative, bringing both an approachable feel and a sense of simple honesty through scale, clarity and organization of design and typography. Shown here: homepage (original design), second level page (as launched) and sample interior page detail.